God's Heart for Haiti

A friend and partner in the rebuilding of College Ste. Pierre passed on the following video to me about the demolition of the School.  All the footage is from College Ste. Pierre.  At one point in the video (shot about four weeks ago), they speculate as to the kind of temporary structures that will be used for the school.  As you can see from my posts below they have worked very quickly to put in place temporary structures so that the students could resume classes this past week.  You will find the video below interesting:

Source: Global Nomads Group

(LtoR) Harry Anglade, Principal; Steve Hickman; Pere Rigal Lucas, Administrator

Steve Hickman (Head of School of Episcopal Collegiate, Little Rock, AR) and I met with the leadership of College Ste. Pierre (CSP) this past Saturday.  Our meeting took place in an administrative office of the School.  It was a productive time.  The most significant things that emerged from the meeting were a clear desire on the part of the Haitian leadership to thoughtfully position CSP for a new mission that is committed to both excellence and one that is internationally recognized and accepted.  The desire is to serve emerging leadership from all of Haiti and to provided not only academic excellence but also to raise up a next generation of leadership that can address, the environmental, social, political and spiritual needs that are peculiar to Haiti.

The most encouraging part of the meeting was a genuine engagement of issues and what I sensed was an openness and eagerness to form a working partnership in the design and development of CSP.  A very clear next step was identified and eagerly agreed to and will be pursued in the days ahead.  +TJ

Temporary Classrooms

College Ste. Pierre has undergone significant change in the four weeks since my last visit.  The damaged and destroyed buildings have been removed, temporary classrooms have been constructed by the Haitian government, and over half of the those living on the soccer field in tents have been moved to make room for the temporary classrooms .

Classes resumed this past Monday (19^th) in the open-air rooms and among those refugees remaining in tents on the School grounds.

Open air classrooms among refugee tents

Construction of the Wall @ Lespwa Timoun

I visited the construction site of the clinic for Lespwa Timoun and found that amazing progress has been made in the past four weeks.  The barrier (outer wall) is nearing completion and that will allow the drilling of the well and the construction of the cistern and generator house.

Carmel and I also visited and explored several new venues where her medical and nutritional work with at risk infants and their parents is expanding.  One such place is a very large refugee center where many thousands are (and many more will be) living in a semi-permanent tent city.  This tent city is being constructed just outside Croix-des-Bouquets.  Carmel hopes to set up a nutrition center within this tent city in the near future.  She is part of the team that is designing and overseeing this project.

The needs are amazing – recent estimates are close to 2 million people living in temporary structures throughout Haiti and just over 800,000 in Port-au-Prince alone.  You can financially support this work by going to the Haiti Relief Fund tab above.  +TJ

Carmel checking on a mother and daughter

Student's at St. Simeon School

I am just back from a visit with Pere Valdema and his wife, Carmel.  All six of his schools have been repaired and re-opened this week.  I was amazed by the many things that have been accomplished since my last visit four weeks ago to prepare for this re-opening.  Many of the students will not go into their classrooms because of fear of building collapse and, therefore, many classes are meeting under tarps or temporary structures.  There is so much to do, but I rejoice in what has been done.  +TJ